Richard Dawkins in storm over 'mild date rape' tweets

Richard Dawkins made the comments on TwitterPhoto: THIS COPYRIGHT IMAGE MUST NOT BE USED WITHOUT PERMISSION

By Anita Singh

4:45PM BST 29 Jul 2014

Professor Richard Dawkins has drawn an angry response from women’s campaigners after he referred to “mild date rape” and stated that date rape is not as bad as being raped by a stranger.

The academic and author also differentiated between “mild pedophilia” [sic] and “violent pedophilia” in a Twitter row about language and logic.

But it was his comments about rape that proved the most controversial.

The End Violence Against Women Coalition said his words were “not merely ignorant but extremely offensive”. Shami Chakrabarti of the human rights group Liberty said there was “no such thing as mild rape”.

Prof Dawkins began his Twitter musings by lecturing his 987,000 followers on syllogisms. “X is bad. Y is worse. If you think that’s an endorsement of X, go away and don’t come back until you’ve learned how to think logically.”

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At that point, he chose to illustrate his point by using rape and paedophilia as subject matter.

“Mild pedophilia [sic] is bad. Violent pedophilia is worse. If you think that’s an endorsement of mild pedophilia, go away and learn how to think,” he wrote.

“Date rape is bad. Stranger rape at knifepoint is worse. If you think that’s an endorsement of date rape, go away and learn how to think.

“If you prefer to think date rape is worse than knifepoint, simply reverse my syllogism. To say Y is worse than X is not an endorsement of Y.

“Whether X or Y is worse is a matter of opinion. But it is a matter of LOGIC that to express that opinion doesn’t mean you approve of either.”

He refused to abandon the controversial language, going on to write: “’Mild date rape is bad. Violent date rape is worse.’ Is it really so hard to understand that that doesn’t constitute endorsement of either?

“Yes, I can imagine circumstances where rape by a friend is worse than by a stranger. The logic remains. It doesn’t imply approval of either.”

After facing condemnation from other Twitter users, Prof Dawkins withdrew from the argument by saying: “What I have learned today is that there are people on Twitter who think in absolutist terms, to an extent I wouldn’t have believed possible.”

"Mild date rape is bad. Violent date rape is worse." Is it really so hard to understand that that doesn't constitute endorsement of either?

Holly Dustin, Co-Director of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, said his comments were an insult to survivors of rape.

"Richard Dawkins' comments about 'mild paedophilia' and 'mild date rape' are not merely ignorant but extremely offensive and damaging,” she said.

“Minimising abuse - what is 'mild rape' after all? - is not a clever, philosophical discussion but has a real impact on the many, many survivors of rape, sexual violence and child sexual abuse who are coping and living with the legacy of their abuse.

"At a time when abuse scandals are rarely out of the headlines, what public figures such as Dawkins should be doing with their power and privilege is calling for proper funding for specialist services for survivors of abuse, and for public education campaigns to tackle the very prejudicial attitudes that are still prevalent throughout society."

Shami Chakrabarti of Liberty said her “jaw dropped” when she heard of Prof Dawkins’ comments.

“I know there are men of a certain generation who just clunk around on this subject but it’s really not good enough. It sends a very bad signal.

“There’s no such thing as a little bit of rape or a mild rape. Let’s just get that clear once and for all.

“I’m not saying this to castigate and I’m not saying this to ridicule, it just needs to be said and we all need to come to a consensus about this,” she said.

“Of course rapes can be aggravated by abuses of trust including what they call ‘date rape’, which is a profound abuse of trust. And of course rape can be aggravated by all sorts of factors by kidnap and violence and torture, which is reflected in sentencing but not in what makes a rape per se.

“There is no mild rape, there is no mild paedophilia. These are terrible, terrible crimes that can be aggravated by additional cruelty.

Shami Chakrabarti

“Language is important. Even great minds need editing. There are very clever people who are experts in their own subject and write books, but when they write books they are edited. Some very clever people who ought to know better occasionally let themselves down online and on Twitter in particular.

“People should sometimes put their smartphones down and count to 250 before entering into such important and sensitive topics on Twitter.

Last month, the Director of Public Prosecutions, Alison Saunders, said society needed to “change the discourse on rape” and bust the myth that rape is most often perpetrated by a stranger.

“Despite efforts to raise awareness, many people still believe a rapist is a man in a balaclava in a dark alley, and a victim is a woman who shows her fear through fight.

“That is very rarely the case; most rapists know their victim, many victims do not physically fight and the trauma of being raped will affect each victim differently.

“There is an urgent need to change the discourse on rape,” Saunders said.

Prof Dawkins has previously claimed that he was the victim of "mild paedophilia" during his childhood, when he and other boys were molested by a prep school teacher, but insisted: "I don't think he did any of us any lasting damage."